Trump's best defense against impeachment

Michael Anton, author of "The Flight 93 Election," arguably one of the most influential essays written in the runup to the 2016 presidential election, has another important essay which will be published in the next edition of The Claremont Review of Books, titled "The Empire Strikes Back." (If you're interested in the cutting edge of conservative thought, I highly recommend a subscription to this quarterly journal.)

If you're not up to reading the whole thing—it is a bit long—I'm here to help. Towards the end of the article is a solid, common-sense rationale for why, even if you stipulate that Trump did indeed withhold funds from Ukraine in an attempt to force them to investigate Burisma and Biden, that was far from being an impeachable offense. Here is the relevant excerpt:

The worst charge thus far alleged against President Trump is that he attempted to make $400 million in aid to Ukraine contingent on that country’s government investigating possible corruption by the Bidens. This is the much hoped for “smoking gun,” the “quid pro quo”—as if the foreign policy of any country in history has ever been borne aloft on the gentle vapors of pure altruism. 

… would that be sufficient to convince a majority of Americans, and a supermajority of senators, that Trump should be removed from office? 

I don’t see it. Especially since a) no aid was actually withheld; b) no investigation was actually launched; c) the American people don’t care about Ukraine and would probably prefer to get their $400 million back; and d) they would inevitably ask: so were, in fact, Joe Biden and his son on the take from a foreign government? And if it looks like they might have been, why, exactly, was it improper for the president to ask about it? 

Trump’s enemies’ answer to the last question is: because the president was asking a foreign government to investigate a political opponent for purely personal gain. Really? Is potential corruption by a former vice president—and potential future president—and his family a purely private matter, of no conceivable import or interest to the public affairs of the United States? That’s what you have to insist on to maintain that the request was improper. That’s the line we can expect the Democrat-CLM axis to flog, shamelessly and aggressively. But will a majority of Americans buy it? Especially since career officials at the Department of Justice already determined, and anti-Trump witnesses appearing before Representative Adam Schiff’s secret star chamber reluctantly conceded, that nothing Trump did or is alleged to have done was technically, you know, illegal.

I ask that any comments be focused not on Trump's myriad character flaws and tweets, but on the question of whether what he has done in Ukraine rises to the level of an impeachable offense.

The weakest recovery and the longest expansion

If it weren't for Trump's trade wars and a dearth of business investment, the economy would be in excellent shape. As it is, growth continues along the moderate 2% path that it has followed for more than 10 years. It's been the weakest recovery ever, but also the longest business cycle expansion. And with no obvious excesses or systemic problems in view, it promises to continue. 

Chart #1

The Q3/19 GDP report—1.9% annualized growth—makes the current expansion the longest on record. Chart #1 shows the quarterly annualized growth rate of both nominal and real GDP. To be sure, 2% growth isn't a barn-burner, but it's impressive given the degree to which the manufacturing sector has been hit by Trump's tariff wars.

Chart #2

Since the recovery started just over 10 years ago, annualized GDP growth has been 2.3%; in the past year it was 2.0%, and in the most recent quarter 1.9%. As Chart #2 suggests, for most of this past year the market has been expecting growth to slow, and indeed it has. That is reflected in the more than 100 bps decline in the real yield on 5-yr TIPS since late last year. At today's real yield of a mere 0.05%, 5-yr TIPS appear to be priced to the expectation that real GDP growth will average about 2% per year going forward. Not surprisingly, Chairman Powell recently chimed in with a similar view, saying the FOMC expects moderate growth of about 2%.

Chart #3

Chart #3 compares real economic growth with private sector jobs growth. Not surprisingly, the two tend to move together: more jobs means more growth. The recent slowdown in GDP growth is reflected in a similar slowdown in jobs growth (the October jobs report was much better than expected, but it didn't do much to change the trend growth rate of jobs, which has been declining so far this year).

Both jobs and GDP have suffered from a lack of business investment, which likely has a lot to do with the uncertainties surrounding international trade. Private sector jobs currently are growing at pace of about 1.3% per year. If jobs grow at least 1% per year and productivity registers at least 1% per year (which it has in recent years), then 2% real economic growth is sustainable. (Jobs growth plus productivity growth is a decent first approximation for overall economic growth.) For growth to move higher, we would need to see a pickup in business investment, which not only creates jobs but improves the productivity of existing workers. A resolution to the tariff wars would undoubtedly prove a catalyst in that regard.

Chart #4

Demographic factors (more and more boomers are retiring) likely also play a part in this year's slowdown. Employers continue to complain that their biggest problem is finding qualified workers. Chart #4 shows that more small business owners than ever before report that "job openings are hard to fill."

Chart #5

But it's not like the economy is running out of available workers. As Chart #5 shows, the labor force participation rate (the percentage of the working age population who are either working or looking for work) looks to be increasing, albeit slowly. People who had been on the sidelines are being enticed to return, perhaps because they see better opportunities. Or in the case of not a few retired baby-boomers I know, they have decided that working is better than just sitting around watching TV. Regardless, there are still almost 6 million people out there who officially are looking for work, according to the BLS.

Chart #6

Chart #6 compares actual growth in real GDP to its long-term trend. (Note that this is plotted using a semi-log scale for the y-axis; a straight line on this chart thus corresponds to a constant rates of growth.) By only averaging 2.3% per year, the current recovery—the weakest in history—has resulted in a $3.4 trillion "shortfall" of growth relative to what might have been had the economy rebounded to its long-term trend as it did after every prior recession. Had this been a "normal" recovery, real median family income might have been almost 18% higher (~ $1000 per month) than it is today. 

Chart #7

Chart #8

Charts #7 and #8 show two measures of business investment. Both show that investment in the current business cycle has been weaker than in previous business cycles (especially in real terms, as Chart #7 highlights). Weak investment is likely major factor behind the economy's unimpressive 2% growth rate. Which is unusual, because corporate profits have been unusually strong in the past decade. 

Chart #9

What other factors might be restraining the economy's ability to grow? The size of government ought to top anyone's list. In the past 12 months, the federal government spent a staggering $4.5 trillion, almost 21% of GDP, and 8% more than the same measure a year ago. Even more staggering, though, is the composition of that spending: 72% of what the federal government "spent" in the past year ($3.2 trillion) was in the form of transfer payments (see Charts #9 and #10). That's money that is spent on things like healthcare, social security, income security, and interest payments on debt (as of last June the annual interest on federal debt outstanding was a little over $600 billion, or 13.3% of federal spending). Only 28% of federal spending was for goods and services (i.e., true purchases). Think of purchases as a proxy for what it costs to run the government, while transfers are basically entitlements—spending that is determined not by the budget process but rather by eligibility. 

Chart #10

Note how the growth in transfer payments has surged relative to the growth of purchases since the early 90s. As Chart #10 shows, since 1970 transfer payments have more than doubled relative to total spending. By far the biggest role of the federal government in today's economy is that of an income transfer agent. Needless to say, with $3.2 trillion per year (and growing) on autopilot, the potential for fraud and waste is ginormous. It's safe to say that the huge size of government transfer payments acts as a drag on overall economic growth and efficiency. And it's only going to get worse unless changes are made to entitlements eligibility (e.g., raising the social security retirement age and/or indexing social security payments to inflation rather than wage growth). 

These are problems that have been and are going to be with us for a long time. In the meantime, it's reassuring to note that financial market conditions look quite healthy:

Chart #11

The threat that an inverted yield posed to the economy (a threat I discounted long ago), has now disappeared. As Chart #11 shows, the Treasury yield curve is now positively-sloped (the 1-10 spread is about 20 bps today), and the real Federal funds rate is essentially zero. The Fed is not tight, and their recent decision to lower their target rate, while overdue, was welcome. The Fed has now caught up to the market and things are thus looking copacetic.

Chart #12

The real yield curve is actually a better thing to look at, and here too things look good. The blue line in chart #12 is a proxy for the overnight real rate, while the real yield on 5-yr TIPS is the market's estimate of what the overnight real rate will average over the next 5 years. Both are identical. By lagging the market's expectation of falling real rates for most of this year the Fed had been threatening with policy arguably "too tight." But now the Fed is neutral. A sign of relief.

Chart #13

Swap spreads (see Chart #13) are my favorite leading and coincident indicator of systemic risk, financial market liquidity, and fundamental economic health (the lower the better). Swap spreads are now low both here and in the Eurozone. Things could hardly be better.

Chart #14

Chart #14 shows Credit Default Swap spreads, a highly liquid and generic indicator of the market's confidence in the outlook for corporate profits. Spreads are quite low, which means the market is confident that the outlook for profits—and by extension the outlook for the economy—is healthy.